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Psychiatrists are physicians: a key distinction

Physician

December 17, 2025

A new patient recently told me, “I’ve already seen two doctors about this.” She meant a life coach with an online certificate and a therapist with a doctorate in education. Neither was a physician. Neither had examined her, ordered labs, or considered medical causes for her rapid cognitive decline.

When I evaluated her, it was immediately clear she needed urgent neurological workup. She wasn’t suffering from “stress.” She had an early …

Tick-borne disease vaccines: a 2025 update

Melvin Sanicas, MD

Conditions

December 17, 2025

Tick-borne illnesses continue to rise across the U.S. and Europe, and clinicians are feeling the impact. More patients are showing up with early Lyme disease, more are asking about prophylaxis, and more travelers want advice about tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). At the same time, vaccine development is finally accelerating after years of stagnation. For busy clinicians, here is a concise update on what’s new and what to tell patients in 2025.

Lyme …

AI and human connection: an ethical crisis

Mohammed Umer Waris, MD

Conditions

December 17, 2025

Causing quite a stir, Mark Zuckerberg (Meta’s CEO) recently proposed Artificial Intelligence (AI) companionship for those suffering from social isolation. All of this unfolds amid a climate of epidemic-levels of loneliness, as declared by the Surgeon General, and the storms it has unleashed upon the edifices of our personal and collective health. The irony, even horror, was not lost on many: The very tools and companies, in …

Why are elderly patients dehydrated?

Spasoje Neskovic, MD

Conditions

December 17, 2025

Being a family physician and geriatrician for more than 38 years, I’m trying to better understand why our elderly patients, and in general, elderly people, suffer from dehydration. For sure, there are many reasons. Some of those are simple, but some of the hidden ones we don’t think about. For example, just by getting older, we end up having less water in our bodies. Living in a humid area and …

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Why are elderly patients dehydrated?

Preventing physician burnout before it begins in med school [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

December 16, 2025

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Urologist William Lynes discusses his article, “Teaching medical students what it is really like to be a physician.” He confronts the tragic reality of physician burnout and suicide, arguing the culture of …

Why we can’t forget public health

Ryan McCarthy, MD

Physician

December 16, 2025

Standing in the middle of the parking lot of the Berkeley 2000 Recreation Center in February 2021, Molly Humphreys, in a single frame, captures an important moment in the public’s collective health, though it can be easily missed if we don’t pause and absorb its significance. In the chaos of 2025, it would be careless to not linger on this image.

A masked …

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Why we can’t forget public health

Why pediatric leadership fails without logistics and tactics

Ronald L. Lindsay, MD

Physician

December 16, 2025

In my previous critiques of the failure of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), and the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP) titled “Why developmental and behavioral pediatrics faces a recruitment collapse,” I argued that “leadership presence without leadership action is theater.” The SDBP strategy had no actionable items.

Any military historian will tell you that in addition to an overall strategy, you …

Why invisible labor in medicine prevents burnout

Brian Sutter

Conditions

December 16, 2025

I was on a call a few months back with a new physician assistant. She was still finding her footing, and she shared a moment that stuck with me. Almost in a whisper, she told me: “No one, not a single person, will ever know what it took, just to keep her alive.” This feeling lingered with her long after the adrenaline of the stressful code had faded.

That hit me …

The risk of ideology in gender medicine

William Malone, MD

Conditions

December 16, 2025

Something unusual is happening in medicine. A once-rare diagnosis (gender dysphoria) has become common among American children and adolescents. An estimated three percent of youth now identify as transgender, and another two percent are questioning their gender identity. That surge should have prompted urgent, transparent scientific inquiry. Instead, the field of pediatric gender medicine has become one of the most ideologically-charged, and least open to critical debate, areas in modern …

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The risk of ideology in gender medicine

The economic case for investing in tobacco cessation

Edward Anselm, MD

Conditions

December 16, 2025

Despite decades of progress in reducing the prevalence of cigarette smoking, tobacco use remains a leading cause of preventable death and disease, and a significant driver of health care costs in the United States. Smoking cessation therapy is consistently ranked among the most cost-effective clinical preventive services and is considered to be “the gold standard of health care cost-effectiveness.” Yet, delivery of evidence-based treatment …

What is vulnerability in leadership?

Paul B. Hofmann, DrPH, MPH

Conditions

December 16, 2025

“The Power of Vulnerability,” a TED Talk by Brené Brown, PhD, has been viewed more than 66 million times. Rather than interpreting vulnerability as a sign of weakness, she suggests that it is a measure of courage, which, in turn, is the “birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” She asserts the courage to acknowledge imperfection, to be kind to ourselves and to others, actually strengthens us. Brown concedes that …

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What is vulnerability in leadership?

Sibling advice for surviving the medical school marathon [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

December 15, 2025

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Medical student Chuka Onuh and orthopedic surgery resident Ogechukwu Onuh discuss their article, “A sibling’s guide to surviving medical school.” They share lessons learned as siblings navigating medical training, focusing on the …

The emotional toll of trauma care

Veronica Bonales, MD

Physician

December 15, 2025

I work as an emergency physician in the emergency department at a Level 1 trauma center. Because time is of the essence, when we get a trauma into the ED, they are automatically deemed a Doe – John or Jane. Due to the number of traumas we see at our trauma center in a given year, another word gets added to the Doe to make them easier to identify. It …

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The emotional toll of trauma care

Preserving clinical judgment in the age of clinical AI tools

Gerald Kuo

Conditions

December 15, 2025

When I first began working with clinical AI tools, I felt the kind of excitement many young clinicians and researchers feel today. For the first time, it seemed possible to reduce cognitive overload, surface hidden patterns, and give clinicians more time to focus on what mattered most: patients. AI felt less like a threat and more like a long-awaited collaborator.

As a young clinician-scholar, I did what many of us do. …

What is a loving organization?

Apurv Gupta, MD, MPH & Kim Downey, PT & Michael Mantell, PhD

Conditions

December 15, 2025

Apurv Gupta, Michael Mantell, and I recently had a conversation exploring how compassion, culture, and systems come together to heal not only patients, but those who care for them. We discussed how loving organizations outperform others, how shared responsibility for well-being transforms outcomes, and why “when two hearts touch, that’s healing!” We learned about real hospitals already leading this movement, and how we can all open our thinking to see …

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What is a loving organization?

Why humanity in medicine requires peace with a spine

Kathleen Muldoon, PhD

Conditions

December 15, 2025

This past year, I’ve found myself in many different rooms (on podcasts, in boardrooms with legislators, and in conversations with program directors at medical schools and hospitals) talking about what humanity truly means in clinical and caregiving professions.

I hear back from my third- and fourth-year medical students about how this work shows up for them in clinics, auditions, and residency interviews. They describe moments when an intentional emphasis on humanity, …

The loss of community pharmacy expertise

Muhammad Abdullah Khan

Conditions

December 15, 2025

Walk into most community pharmacies today and you’ll notice something off. The pharmacist who used to remember your name and medication history is gone. The one who caught that dangerous drug interaction last year? Also gone. In their place, a rotating cast of temporary faces, each one just trying to survive the shift.

This isn’t about a labor shortage. We have pharmacists. What we’re losing is something else entirely. Expertise, continuity, …

How should kratom be regulated? [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

December 14, 2025

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Retired nurse practitioner Heidi Sykora discusses her article, “The case for regulating, not banning, kratom.” She provides an evidence-based perspective on why kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) should not be treated as a dangerous …

Physician leadership communication tips

Imamu Tomlinson, MD, MBA

Physician

December 14, 2025

Let’s be honest. Most frontline clinicians don’t wake up worrying about CDC updates. They’re worrying about whether the ED has enough staff, or whether the patient they discharge will receive the follow-up care they need.

So when another vaccine recommendation or public policy update drops, often contradicting the last, it’s no wonder people roll their eyes. The problem isn’t that clinicians don’t care about public health; it’s that the messaging often …

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Physician leadership communication tips

Why senior-friendly health materials are essential for access

Gerald Kuo

Conditions

December 14, 2025

I have spent years working with older adults in community and home-based care. During that time, I learned that one of the most stubborn barriers to health is not a rare disease, a complex guideline, or even a lack of services.

Sometimes, the barrier is a piece of paper. A flyer that an 80-year-old cannot read because the font is too small, a brochure filled with medical jargon that confuses more …

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